Galactic Map

Near the northern tip of Puppis, not far from the brilliant
starSirius in the sky, lies this
bluecluster. Its
stars are scattered over a region roughly equivalent in apparent size to the
Moon, and are bright enough to be detected by the
naked eye.

This is a young cluster in stellar terms.
Approximately 78 million years old, it came into existence near the end of Earth's age of the
dinosaurs. Because its stars are young, they still burn bright and
blue; their surface temperatures are close to 20,000
Kelvin. There are about thirty stars in the
cluster, spread over a region some fifteen
light years across.